- IRELAND.
Lord Castlereagh has been appointed to the Lieutenancy of the County' of Demi, vacant by the death of the Marquis of Downshire.
At the meeting of the Repeal Association, on Monday, a good deal of equivocal language was used. The Chairman was Mr. Nicholas Maher, M.P.; who, as e Roman Catholic and the representative of Roman Catholics, thanked Sir Robert Peel for the very handsome manner in which he had bestowed the increased grant to Maynooth: at the same time, Mr. Maher declared that while the Irish people would accept any boon offered to them as compensation for past injuries, nothing short of Repeal would fully satisfy them. They would likewise accept sympathy from whatever quarter it came, but they did not want assistance: they were themselves equal to any emergency, having hearts resolved and arms nerved for Ireland.
Mr. O'Connell read a letter from Dr. Wiggins, the Roman Catholic Bishop of At- dagh, enclosing.74/. from the clergy of Ms diocese. A good part of the letter may lie extracted. " The events that have taken place in England during the last month have settled the question among Irishmen. Every one, even the most apathetic, has been alarmed and aroused to a sense of national duty, and despair of any measure of justice from England has sunk deep into every. heart. In that wicked and besotted country, not only has the mob risen up against us, but the peer, the squire, the merchant, the trader, the parson, the swaddler—in a word, the whoilecniopulation men, women, and children, of every creed, class, and section, have openly declared that they keep us eternally under their cruel domina- tion. Such being their unchristian dispositions, I am exceedingly glad that they have manifested them to the world. I think we may now safely point to any Irishman as a hypocrite or a fool who will have the hardihood to assert that Eng- land will ever do justice to his country. * • * Much has been said &breaths gratitude we owe for the grant to Maynooth; but I confess that I for one (aadd am joined in the sentiment by the priests and people of this diocese) feel no gra titude whatever. In the first place, our own energies and determination wrattg that paltry sum from a bigoted and Anti-Irish Cabinet; nor shall we ever thmF the rich glutton when he disdainfully flings us the crumbs from his table. Se- condly, the grant is so miserable in amount, that it can be looked upon in no other light than as a sheer mockery and an insult. There are 8,000,000 of Catholics in this country, and the grant would be about three farthings yearly for each. Does the childish Minister imagine that the Catholics of Ireland would not give annually three farthings each for the education of their revered clergy ? or does he so far deceive himiel. as to beli.we that any one Irishman would sell his birth- right for that notable sum? It as mild appear, however, that he does actually bi- dulge in this extravagant delusion, and expects that we will one and all sit down etrnte contented with a mock representation, bad laws, bad partisan magistrates, a domineering and robbing corporation called a church establishment—in short, that we will patiently endure every species of misrule, misrepresentation, and oppres- sion, and all this for the yearly sum of three farthings a head! * • • We want and demand a repeal of the iniquitous Union; there is no other remedy for the wrongs of our country. It would make us happy and England secure.'
Mr. Smith O'Brien moved an address to the electors of the county of Down, from the Committee of the Repeal Association, entreating them to return as their representative at the approaching election one who will reassert the claim made by their fathers in 1782 to a free and independent Legislature. He proceeded to comment on Mr. Macaulay's speech of last week; avowing that the language attributed to that gentleman almost tempted him to use expressions of defiance. He told the people of England, if they put the issue, not on right and justice, but on the strength of their own country, that, even circumstanced as the people of England were, the Union could not be sustained by all the mighty power of Eng- land: but he would not be tempted by the rash and insolent boast to swerve from the policy which Repeaters had marked out for themselves, which was--connexion with England, loyalty to the Queen, but no subserviency to a British Parliament. In other words, what they desired was, connexion with England through the means of the Crown, and national independence through a domestic Parliament. He told Mr. Macaulay he would do well to restrain his bluster. He told him, that if the contingencies contemplated in his speech were to occur, it would be too late to negotiate. If fifty thousand Frenchmen were in readiness to descend upon the, unprotected shores of England—if an American fleet swept the Channel, having on board regiments of Irish emigrants, enrolled, armed, disciplined, ready to land on their native Irish soil and contend for the rights of their country—if the Irish soldiers in the British Army, who form one-third of the force, should refuse, ashelieved they would refuse, to shed the blood of their fellow-country- men--and iff one million of the natives of Ireland now resident in England and Scotland were prepared, as he believed they would be, to cooperate with their fellow-couritrymen—if such contingencies were to. arrive, he firmly believed that the.British empire would be broken up, and that thenceforth the history of Ireland would be written as of a separate and independent nation. -Mt. John Augustus O'Neill, in seconding the motion, recommended the Irish Members in future to attend in Parliament; and declared that they did not serve the cause of Repeal who endeavoured to disparage Sir Robert Peel's manly conduct towards Ireland.
Mr. Grey Porter agreed in the recommendation; and gave his idea of the rea- sons which deterred the gentry of the Horth fromjoining the Association. The men of Ulster wished to know whether the Repeal of the Union was a sine quo non or an alternative--whether, if the grievances were redressed, the people of Ireland would still persevere in seeking for it. In his opinion, they would stand higher in the estimation of the North, which was now against them, if they an- nounced.their readiness to maintain the Union with England provided justice was done to them—provided the number of their representatives were increased, the franchise extended, and the other measures conceded to them which would be carried by an Irish Parliament.
Mr. 0 Connell said, that he differed from much that had fallen from those who preceded. He denied that the North is against the Repeaters: the Catholics, the majority in Ulster, are with them; and he did not believe that if they did look for minor measures they would have the gentry of the North. He also accused Mr. O'Neill of having expressed an excess of gratitude to the English people. In Exeter Hall every despicable forgery calculated to bring disgrace on Catholicity was received with approval; and Dr. Gray was altruist torn to pieces there by an infuriate mob I sesona.calling. themselves clergymen, for merely asking the name of the pub- BBaallireerr one of . those forgeries. After declaring that force could not pat down the agitation for Repeal, because the Repeaters themselves would not use force, but would only oppose to it the sand-bag of passive resistance, he com- mented on the Maynooth debate of last week; particularly recogn the pledge given by Lord Howick and Mr. Macaulay to abolish the Esttabb hed Church of Ireland. Mr. Adaeaulay'slanguage he angrily resented: the Irish should have rushed on him when he calkd the Coercion Bill an experi- mutton in corpore vile Mr. O'Connell turned to a new point. Last week he was anxious for the coining of the Queen to this country; but he confessed that the speakers in Parliament had changed his mind exceedingly. They should now take care not to make any move which could be construed into any mitigation of the agitation for Repeal. The cant and cry of their enemies in Ire- land was, that the agitation was going down • and if they shrank in the smallest degree, the cry would be echoed in England. No one had more respect for the Queen than he, or was more devoted in his allegiance, which he was ready to seal with his life; and he looked for the Repeal because he thought it was the only mode of maintaining the connexion with England. Sir James Graham, too, had said that the majority of the people of Ireland was against Repeal. He wished that Sir. James Graham would count heads. Those speeches had convinced him that he must be cautious. Humble as he was, he was looked on as the repre- sentative of the feeling@ of the people of Ireland; and if he shrank, the.people would share the disgrace, aline looked on as having abandoned their principles: but he could not have the feelings of a man, a Christian, or a patriot, if he relaxed in the minutest degree in his efforts for national independence. He concluded by moving that the Committee of the Association be instructed to consider the most appro- priate manner of receiving the Queen on the occasion of her visit to this country; taking care, that while the greatest respect should be shown to the Sovereign, she might not be allowed to remain in ignorance of the intention of the people of Ire- land under all circumstances to persevere in their demand for legislative inde- pendence.
Mr. Smith O'Brien seconded the motion; and it passed unanimously. All the speeches elicited the usual quantum of "loud cheers," and the like signs of ap- proval. The rent for the week was 4181.
The Queen's visit to Ireland formed the subject of a discussion in Dublin Town-Council, on Tuesday. Alderman O'Brien moved that it be referred to a Committee to draw up an address to be presented to the Queen on behalf of the Dublin Corporation, praying of her Majesty to pay a visit to her loyal and devoted subjects in Ireland. Alderman Sir John Power seconded the motion. Mr. Hud- son moved an amendment. On a former day he had agreed that such an address should be sent forward to her Majesty; for he had thought that unanimity prevailed, and would continue to prevail, on everything connected with the Royal visit: but he had seen in the- papers of that day reports of spftehes delivered in the Repeal Association, which had quite changed his mind, and. made him think that the occasion would be used for party purposes, and produce dissension and discord rather than community of sentiment and kindly social feelings. For this reason, he would move that the consideration of the subject should be postponed for a month. Alderman 'Callahan seconded the amendment. Alderman O'Connell admitted that since he had last met the Council his mind had been completely changed. He avowed the speech attributed to him in the Repeal Association; and he now repeated that the speeches of Peel and Grab en le Parliament, when they ad- ierted to the question of Repeal, were so full of insolent defiance, that he found it impolitic now to meet her Majesty in that spirit with which he would have met her had no such speeches been made. He believed that this had been the result of design among Ministers—to prevent the Irish people from being unanimous. He could not now consent to suspend the agitation of Repeal; it would be said that hey shrunk from it, or that the people had grown tired of it. Now, he would be no party to predneing such a state of opinion, and for this reason Would not eon-
cur in the proposition to invite her Majesty to visit this country. In the diesusee sion which arose, Mr. Reilly deprecated royal visits, as tending to get the counter gentlemen who visit Dublin into expenses and debt ! Eventually, however, OK amendment was negatived, and the original motion was carried.
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